Brock Named First LSU Sand Volleyball Coach

BATON ROUGE – Russell Brock has been selected to lead LSU’s sand volleyball program as announced Wednesday by vice chancellor and director of athletics Joe Alleva.

Brock has spent the last eight seasons with the Rice University indoor program. He served as a volunteer coach from 2006-08 before being promoted to assistant coach from 2009-13. During his tenure, the Owls racked up 141 wins which included two NCAA Tournament trips and school’s first-ever Conference USA championship in 2009.

“LSU is excited to be on the forefront of adding the new sport of Women’s Sand Volleyball and increasing participation opportunities for our female student-athletes,” Alleva said. “I am confident that under the leadership of Head Coach Fran Flory and Associate Head Coach Russell Brock we will have a very competitive and successful team.”

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to have the opportunity to join the LSU family and to be an integral part of the inception of the LSU sand volleyball program,” Brock said. “I’m extremely grateful to Miriam Segar and Fran Flory for their faith in me. Sand volleyball has been a passion of mine for a long time. I feel blessed to be able to invest the time and energy to help develop LSU into one of the best programs in the country. With the resources and support that LSU provides its athletic teams along with the ability to attract elite athletes to this respected university, I have high expectations for the program. I can’t wait to start working hard with the program.”

Brock played a major role in the development of Rice’s middle blockers and blocking schemes. He coached Natalie Bogan (2007, 2009) and Nancy Cole (2010-12) to multiple AVCA All-Americans honors. Cole is the only three-time AVCA All-America pick in program history. In total, four players earned eight All-Conference USA selections. Brock has coached four of the top seven players on Rice’s all-time total blocks list.

“I’m very excited to add Russell to our LSU volleyball family and staff,” indoor volleyball head coach Fran Flory said. “He is an amazing coach and an even more amazing person. His ties to the sand volleyball community along with his extensive experience in the sport make him a perfect fit to help start our program. He is an outstanding recruiter which will enable him to attract outstanding sand volleyball student athletes into our program. His passion for the sport along with his vision for the program will help lead us to national success.”

Before joining the Rice program, Brock spent 11 years at Baytown Christian Academy in Texas. He acted as the school’s athletics director, operations manager and coached the girls volleyball, boys soccer and boys basketball teams. Under his leadership, the volleyball squad captured four Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools state titles.

Brock was standout at the University of Southern California where he amassed 956 digs en route to the program’s all-time record, a mark he held for 10 seasons. He also set a NCAA mark with 45 matches with 10-plus digs. Brock graduated in 1996 with a B.S. in exercise science.

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